Govt raises HRA deduction limit to Rs 60,000 for rent payers

New Delhi, Feb 29: In a relief to individual tax payers, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today increased the tax deduction limit to Rs 60,000 per annum from the current Rs 24,000 on the housing rent.

"I propose to increase the limit of deduction of rent paid under 80 GG from Rs 24,000 per annum to Rs 60,000 to provide relief to those who live in rented houses," he said while presenting the Budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha.

The Finance Minister also announced an additional tax relief of Rs 50,000 per annum on a loan of Rs 35 lakh in 2016-17 for the first-time home buyers, provided the house cost does not exceed Rs 50 lakh.

He also proposed to raise the ceiling of tax rebate under 87A from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000. With this, individuals with income up to Rs 5 lakh will get a relief of Rs 3,000 in their tax liability, he said.

The government has also proposed to increase the turnover limit under presumptive taxation scheme under 44 AD of the Income Tax Act to Rs 2 crore from existing limit of Rs 1 crore, which will benefit more than 30 lakh small business people.

He also proposed to extend the presumptive taxation scheme with profit deemed to be 50 per cent, to professionals with gross receipts up to Rs 50 lakh. The Finance Minister also announced to increase security transaction tax in case of 'Options' from 0.017 to 0.05 per cent.

Stressing on simplification and rationalisation of taxation, the Finance Minister said that 13 cesses, levied by various Ministries in which revenue collection is less than Rs 50 crore, will be abolished. For non residents, providing alternative documents to PAN Card will be allowed and TDS provisions for Income Tax will be rationalised, he said. A facility for revision of return will also be extended to Central Excise Assesses, he added.